


Moments Like These (Something Less, Yet Something More)

by ohmygoshwhatascream



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Just some good old fashioned true love, honestly I love them so fucking much, these two make me weak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-26 17:27:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19772992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmygoshwhatascream/pseuds/ohmygoshwhatascream
Summary: Even if she had a choice, she wouldn’t change a thing.





	Moments Like These (Something Less, Yet Something More)

**Author's Note:**

> So I’ve been playing XC2 for like 2 weeks and fuck I’m weak. I’m only at C7 or 6 but lemme tell you I’m weak for Pandoria and Zeke. I just love em and it’s literally 2AM and I just shat this out but I had the feelings and i just had to do something for them.
> 
> Also some of the things in here are inspired by some of @KawaiiBoushi and @tbat so if they read this, I hope it’s okay I used some of your headcanons (Zeke having naturally red eyes etc) and if you’re reading this and you haven’t read their fics definitely do bc they’re absolutely amazing!

They slip quietly out of the inn in the early hours of the morning. Bathed in the soothing glow of pale light, they leave. Whispering loudly and shushing one another between choked laughs and smothered giggles, they step out into the pouring rain. He takes her arm, pulling her along as they run through the cobbled streets of Fonsa Myma. Slipping and stumbling, she yelps as he tugs her around sharp corners and down steep steps.

“My prince!” She gasps for breath, struggling to see as rain splatters against her fogged glasses. “Where are we going?” He turns around to face her, still running as he opens his mouth to reply. Her eyes widen as she sees a steep flight of steps looming ever closer. “My prince! Look out!”

...Too late.

He stumbles as his feet fail to land on the descending path, his free arm waves wildly as he tries to regain his balance. Alas, to no avail. He falls, pulling her down with him.

She shrieks, shutting her eyes tight as she braces for impact.

It doesn’t come.

Instead she feels something solid and warm press up against her. A pair of strong arms come to wrap around her, pulling her close. With her face smooshed against what can only be his _very_ bare and _very_ muscular chest, they fall.

He holds her tight as he falls back, hands protective and warm against her cool skin.

With an loud gasp, he lands. His back crashes against the floor and he grunts at the harsh impact. She, however, feels no pain. Cushioned by his body. She finds herself protected and safe from the cold ground.

He opens his eyes, the eyepatch gone - abandoned in their cramped room at the inn. His eyes - a deep red - no longer hidden by coloured contacts, gaze at her with something so soft and tender. She sees the man hidden under endless theatrics. The one who has lived and almost died and fought and cried and laughed by her side for over a decade. She feels his heartbeat in her core crystal, the ether that flows between the two of them, warm and safe. She thinks of their stupid poses, the ones that he spends endless nights forcing her to practice and perfect. His silly names, the pieces of paper he hands her at three in the morning filled with little doodles of their beloved mascot hidden between spiky letters that give new titles to powerful arts and meaningful speeches. His goofy smiles and his grand gestures. Just every little part of him, the bits and pieces he’s shown her and the fragments that he never had to mention. 

He looks at her like she lights up his life. Maybe she does, she thinks as the lightbulbs on her shoulders flicker nervously. He’s always saying corny things like that. She’ll never admit it, but she secretly likes them. They’re stupid and cliché and dramatic, but then, aren’t they? 

She’ll brush his words off, eyes rolling but cheeks flushed pink. She doesn’t have to say anything. He knows. He always knows. They’re in synch like that. Two halves of a whole.

He smiles at her softly as she pushes herself up, hands resting on his chest - just below the rhythmic thump of his heart.

They’ve been through a lot, him and her. A lot of good, a lot of bad. Maybe things would have been easier if she had not resonated with him. She wouldn’t spend so long in the Cloud Sea, for starters. She wouldn’t have to worry about cliff faces or strangely unstable boulders. She’d still have her core crystal intact.

She knows that if he - architect forbid - ever passes, that she will too. She gave up her life of immortality in order to save his own. Her core crystal is damaged beyond repair. He will be her last driver.

It’s better this way, she thinks. She never wants to forget this life. She looks at him, feels the warmth of his skin through the palms of her hands and feels his puffed breaths like ghosts against his skin. She can run imagine a life without him in it.

“Hey.” He whispers, winking. He moves to sit up, holding her hands tenderly in his own. “Hey.” She whispers back, her voice almost swallowed by the pattering of rainfall surrounding them.

She loves him. Even if she doesn’t really know what love is - not really. She’s read his awful collection of romance novels, the ones that had supplied him with such moves as: ‘Declaration of Eternal Love’ and ‘Eye of Burning Passion’. They’d always described love as something like fireworks painted in a night sky. Something sweet and magic, fire curling against your toes and warm in your stomach.

It doesn’t really feel like that - not for her anyway.

Instead, she feels it in the way his awful jokes make their friends groan and roll their eyes. She feels it in the way he makes stupid things sound so brilliant. When he’s happy, she feels it like sunshine in her heart. But his sadness, his anger; she hears their snarls and feels their sharp claws scraping against her insides. She feels love in the way that he’s given her pieces of him that he’ll never give to anyone else.

She can barely see him now, the rain growing ever heavier and more forceful, fat raindrops and thick fog coating her glasses like tar. Windows rattle and shake, houses groan and creak in their precarious foundations and the gloom of early morning swirls around them in powerful gusts.

He leans closer to her, large hands steady on her waist. He places a gentle kiss against her lips, her lightbulbs gleaming brightly like beacons in the darkened street.

She doesn’t know what they’re doing out here, why they’re even sitting out here in the rain like idiots. She doesn’t know if even he himself remembers what he dragged her out here for - he always forgets.

This is love, she thinks. Just existing with one another. It’s not romantic, not really. It’s cold and wet and his back probably hurts more than he’s letting on and they’re both absolutely exhausted, but it’s just so _them_ , so dramatic yet so utterly mundane and normal. But it doesn’t have to be romantic. It doesn’t have to be perfect, because _they’re_ not perfect.

He kisses her again, long and sweet. His lips are cold, yet they seem to burn like fire against her skin. There’s something quite poetic about it, really. Or maybe she’s just been spending far too much time with him. But either way, she’s not complaining.

His arms come to wrap around her, pulling her snug against his own body once more. His head comes to rest in the crook of her neck and she giggles softly as his breath tickles against her collarbone.

“I love you.” She whispers, her hands absently tracing sweet nothings against his back.

He doesn’t respond, but she feels his smile burning hot against her skin.

Grand gestures are nice and all, but sometimes this is all you need.

**Author's Note:**

> I love comments and I’m a slut for a good old kudos so please give me validation thanks xx 
> 
> If you wanna vent shit about Zeke/Pandoria my tumblr is @ohmygoshwhatascream so feel free to just leave some ramblings or shit, I kinda wanna make friends with people in the fandom but I’m way too socially inept to like actually talk to people myself so like lmao


End file.
